Jamie Condliffe

Two months ago the Netherlands and UK governments ordered ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. Now, figures from a number of ISPs confirm exactly what we, though obviously not the governments, knew: it doesn't make any difference whatsoever to P2P traffic.

Torrent Freak reports that major Dutch and UK ISPS have both reported that, though there was a transitory dip in P2P traffic immediately following the blocks, sharing has now returned to the same level as before the ban.

As the BBC suggests, such bans are like a giant, online game of whack-a-mole: attempting to block a single torrent site like Pirate Bay just means alternatives pop up elsewhere. In fact, Loz Kaye, founder of the popular Pirate Bay proxy Pirate Party explains in the Guardian:

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"The Pirate Party's website is now in the top 500 websites in the UK – above any other political party. If the aim was to change people's behavior, the most noticeable change we have seen is an upsurge in interest in our kind of politics. I doubt this was the [British Phonographic Industry's] intention."

So, in other words, the initiative hasn't worked at all. If anything, in fact, it's only served to raise awareness of pirate sites and perhaps in the long-term even encourage their use. Bad job, Europe. Bad job. [Torrent Freak, Guardian]